Concerts

How do four Irish high school students learn to play Yardbirds-style blues well enough to impress Jeff Beck, Noel Gallagher and Roger Daltrey and then get signed by Sir Elton John? The members of The Strypes, all between 16 and 18, immersed themselves in YouTube videos of their blues heroes and now play their own truly impressive version of the original stuff. Singer Ross Farrelly’s voice is rich and rough, belying his baby face. And guitarist Josh McClorey’s blazing fingers left dropped jaws all over Austin. These kids got noticed playing covers ranging from Bo Diddley and Slim Harpo to the Beatles and Nick Lowe, and in September, released some of their own tunes. It’s not groundbreaking, but it sure is fun.

The SXSW venue called Hotel Vegas was the home for dozens of excellent garage rock bands, most made up of youngsters in search of some exposure and a good writeup or two. In the midst of it all, this group of fifty-somethings blew everyone else away with their pop-punk jamming. Members of other bands on the night’s bill stood stageside and rocked approvingly. Protex formed in Ireland in 1977, inspired by a Clash concert credited by many with kickstarting the Irish punk movement. The name, originally Protex Blue, came from a song on the Clash’s UK debut album. The band broke up three years later after modest success and went on with their lives. Thirty years later, a U.S. record company dug up the original album and re-released it, and one YouTube video drew more than 30,000 hits, prompting two original band members to put Protex back together. Their two SXSW gigs were the only ones on their U.S. visit, but judging from the reaction, they should be back.

These five cousins, brothers and family friends rushed their high school graduations last year so they could get on with a rock ’n’ roll career that has already seen them make it to David Letterman and land the opening slot on an Arctic Monkeys tour. For kids just coming of age in 2014, they do a great job of channeling American garage rock circa 1966. The tightly echoed vocals and stinging guitars are the stuff of “Nuggets” era bands. Singer Mario Cuomo (that’s right, Mario Cuomo) is a crazy man live, throwing himself over, under and around the stage. In Austin, Cuomo finished the set’s final song by climbing up a fence surrounding the outdoor venue, crawling on top of a food truck’s roof and dropping down into the street.

The Orwells at the Waterloo Records outdoor stage in Austin.
(Photos by Meri Simon)

City: Columbus, Ohio
http://lydialoveless.com
Already an underground favorite on the alt-country scene, Loveless’s genre-bending new album “Somewhere Else” slides her toward the “alt” side of that spectrum and has earned her huge buzz from Spin, NPR and Rolling Stone, among others. You can still hear the country in her commanding voice, though, as she sings of love, desire and regret in sentiments so raw and honest you’ll almost blush. She played seven shows with her band at SXSW, focusing almost exclusively on her sizzling new material. This album is going to take Loveless to a new level; don’t miss the chance to see her while she’s still playing a tiny club.

Lydia Loveless at the Broken Spoke for the Twangfest party.
(Photos by Meri Simon)

The Seductress from Sao Paulo left few if any prisoners at Yoshi’s during her Friday night set, thoroughly making putty out of the audience with a voice that has propelled the 53-year-old Elias into international stardom.

The band, including husband bassist Marc Johnson, may have seemed worn out, maybe even burned out, for much of the 90-minute set. The technical problems bordered on the comical, as we all had to suffer through an out-of-whack sound-mix and, for several minutes, a voice mic that was missing in action. And the whole feel of the show seemed gimmicky, with large swaths of uninspired improvisation.

But that didn’t stop everyone from falling in love with Elias, a big-hearted big blonde of a balladeer.

And what clenched the deal was that voice. Because it’s a voice that can reach out into the shadows, caress you, comfort you and darn near break your heart.

Elias moved methodically, almost by rote, through a ten-pack of songs, several of them off her new album, I Thought About You (A Tribute to Chet Baker). And the crowd seemed to grow more adoring with each tune, especially the ones that featured that voice.

There was the cover song, slow and silky, as Elias held the room with spot-on phrasing that left you hungry for more. There was Everything Depends on You, which she laid out in a tight slow blues, singing softly as a little girl might sing to herself while she daydreamed. And there were just enough Brazilian tunes to please those in the crowd who prefer that luscious flank in Elias’ repertoire.

While Elias engaged is some silly back-and-forth banter with the audience, she didn’t bother to introduce her bandmates, rounded out by electric-guitarist Steve Cardenas and Mauricio Zottarelli on drums, until the show was almost over.

But no matter. The audience jumped to their feet as the musicians took their final bow and then, with almost a shrug of their shoulders, came back for an encore, sending everyone happily home with a hot version of So Danco Samba.

By Richard Scheinin
Mercury News
Only 23, singer Cecile McLorin Salvant taps into a lineage: Bessie Smith, Betty Carter, Abbey Lincoln. She’s comfortable with blues. She understands irony: On her new album “Woman Child” (Mack Avenue), she shocks with a racist number from the 1930s, “You Bring Out the Savage in Me,” yodeling like Tarzan in the chorus, letting the listener feel some discomfort — but embracing the tune, too. She is soulfully hilarious.

Salvant grew up (and still lives) in Miami and attended a university in France, where she studied law and at age 18 wandered into a jazz class — where a fire was lit. Five years later, her life has changed. On June 19, she makes her Bay Area debut, singing at the SFJazz Center in San Francisco. Later this year, she tours with Wynton Marsalis.

I spoke by phone with Salvant, who described her family’s musical tastes: her Haitian-born father’s folk singing, her French-Guadeloupian mother’s Sarah Vaughan obsession, her own teenage love of grunge:

Q Tell me about the music in your house, while you were growing up. What did the family listen to? Did your parents play instruments or sing?
A My dad has a beautiful voice. He’s not at all a professional singer, and never tried to be one. But he always used to sing around the house – stuff that we would hear on the radio. We would hear a song and we would try to harmonize the tune, or some Haitian songs. And he played the piano, classical piano, when he was a kid, so he still has some chops left over.
My mom is actually the one who was the bigger music lover at home. She would listen to a lot of music, and there were a couple of songs that would come back on the repeat: “Midnight Train to Georgia.” A lot of Nancy Wilson. A lot of Sarah Vaughan; she was a big favorite. Billie Holiday: “Don’t Explain” was definitely on repeat.

But there was a lot of world music, too. Senegalese music; Youssou N’Dour. Fado. Brazilian music. There was Cape Verdean music, Dominican music, Paraguayan folk, American folk, bluegrass, Motown, soul, a lot of Michael Jackson, a lot of Earth, Wind and Fire, Barry White — and I could keep going. Very eclectic, my mom’s taste — and always the best. What she listened to the least was rock, but I listened to rock with my friends – grunge and a lot of things.

Q Out of all that listening, what did you love the most?
A I can’t say there was one thing. There were just those songs. When I was around 14, there was this Sarah Vaughan duet with Billy Eckstine, where they sing “I Love You,” and I was listening to that over and over, all the time, and thinking it was really corny and great. But I also listened to a lot of Pearl Jam at that time; loved Pearl Jam. And who was that guy who was the front man for Soundgarden? I remember going to one of his (Chris Cornell’s) concerts in high school and loving that, too. Continue Reading →

Great Peacock began as a duo in Nashville, Andrew Nelson and Blount Floyd playing what once might’ve been called southern-inflected country-rock, not far from what the Marshall Tucker Band made their bones on. Now that sound, passed through an indie filter, is called Americana or roots. And while groups like the Lumineers and Mumford and Sons play a version that’s polished, if inauthentic, Great Peacock’s songs feel like they really are the voices of small-town Mississippi or Tennessee. The duo is now a full band, and they’ve got crack players everywhere. So far, there’s only an EP, but watch this band for their next step.

Murry’s appearance at SXSW was limited to a 30-minute show in a club away from the downtown madness. But he delivered a few of his emotional, heartfelt songs between expressions of misgiving for even being in Austin for what he thinks is an overcommercialized, anti-artistic exercise. Murry’s upcoming album, “The Graceless Age,” might make such self-promotion unnecessary. Its raw, powerful lyrics and Springsteen-like cinematic sweep already are generating raves in the United Kingdom, where it’s been out for a few months.

Peter Bruntnell is an alt-country legend in England but has been relegated in the U.S. to a few tours opening for Son Volt and other twangy headliners. But his songwriting is equal to many more famous than he, and for more than a decade his band has been one of the top in the genre. His appearances in the U.S. have dwindled in recent years, but he said at SXSW that he was trying to get some dates. He’s got a new album just out, but if you want to delve back in the past for his best, it’s called “Normal for Bridgewater.”

The Peter Bruntnell Band at the Chuggin’ Monkey in Austin. (Photo by Michael Mayer)

These youngsters from L.A. had never played outside their home city before (well, there was that one gig in Costa Mesa, but that’s kinda L.A. sphere of influence, and one stop in El Paso on the way to Austin). But their Replacements-like sensibilities went down well in the Live Music Capital of the World, complete with hooky guitar lines and creative, lead-guitarish bass. If they finally do make it to your town, don’t miss em.